2013 European Championships

Plushenko Pulls Out of European Championships.
Worst Showing Ever for Russian Dumped him in Sixth Place

by Alexandra Stevenson

(23 January 2013)

Multi-Medaling Super Athlete Falls But is
Still a Star Worth Watching

A lower back spinal injury has caused Evgeny Plushenko, 2006 Olympic
gold medalist, who also earned silver in the 2002 and 2010 Games, to
pull out of the European Championships, after a flawed showing in
Thursday’s initial round straddled him in sixth place.

The 30-year old has competed in this championship on and off since
1998, earning nothing lower than second place. He has three silver
medals and six golds, the last gained in 2012 in a legendary career.
His goal is to compete in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi in his
native Russia. He has already come out of retirement twice. Now, he
returns to Moscow to his second wife who, on January 6, delivered
his second son.

On Wednesday, the legendary skater seemed very calm as ISU
officials, including Dr. Sanda Dubravcic (the skater who lit
the flame at the Sarajevo Olympic Games, who is from Zagreb, and on
the ISU Medical committee) counseled him to withdraw because he had
fallen twice in practice and has a lower spinal problem.

Today, televised shots of
him backstage before the Short Program showed him smiling and quite
mobile, but a close up of the eyes appeared to betray him. He has a
look of slight puzzlement or possibly even of annoyance that he is
"on camera" all the time. But the smile stays in place. The gang of
journalists photographing and following him is claustrophobic to
anyone even around him.

He was shown on television walking about
backstage before his on-ice warm-up seemingly not in any pain. He
drew to skate 17th in the field of 30 competitors from 24 countries,
which was fifth in the third of the five groups of six competitors.
The first during-the-competition ice resurface had just taken place
before his group took the ice, and the ice’s condition was said to
be good.

A huge cheer and waving flags greeted his
appearance on his warm-up. Like most of the male competitors, he was
in black with some silver, and some half-transparent black chiffon
areas. Initially, he looked in impressive. Although he doubled one
jump, a Lutz, he sailed through others, a triple loop, a triple Lutz
to triple toe loop and a lovely triple Axel all landed with a
softness which contrasted with the scrapping, scratchy sounds of
some of the other competitors who hold their landing with force
rather than correct edge placement.

He initially completely outshone the others in
his group, particular in his posture and out-going connection with
the audience. But, as the warm-up continued, he stopped doing jumps
and began to "walk through" his program executing a series of double
three turns for the rotation in jump simulations. A half-hearted
attempt at a spin travelled a bit instead of staying on its center, and a footwork
sequence was abandoned after a few steps.

He skated to "Storm" by Yanni, arranged by his friend, Edvin Marton,
immediately following Kim Lucine who represents Monaco and right
before long time US resident and Austrian champion Viktor Pfeifer,
who skates for his birth country, Austria.

It was an obviously flawed showing. He did not attempt the quad toe
to triple toe listed as his first element on his advance information
sheet. Instead, he substituted a triple Lutz. But he messed that up,
jacknifing his body forward on the landing, which prevented him
getting into the air for the second jump. He got half a point
removed from the base value, and had to add the missing triple toe
loop to the triple loop executed later in the program, which he did
with remarkable skill.

But before that he fell on the triple Axel.
That would have wiped any less famous skater completely out of
contention. But he did fight to do his best on the other elements,
and the steps, in particular, were extremely creatively devised,
well performed to the music and highly appreciated by the audience.
Although the Technical Panel awarded the steps only Level 2, the
nine members of the judging panel showed their appreciation with
Grades of Execution which comprised three of the maximum +3s and six
+2s.

His components ranged from lows of three 7.0 (two for Transitions
and for performance, each from a different judge) up to two 9.0s for
the fifth category, Interpretation.

Coach, Alexei Mishin, came out to talk to the assembled journalists
holding his arms up as if surrendering to gunmen. He then shrugged
his shoulders and said, "He wasn't fit but we had to participate in
this competition."

Plushenko later said, "It wasn't a magic day
today. I fell on the triple Axel. Maybe I rushed it. Maybe I wasn't
completely focused. When we got here to the ice rink we decided not
to go for the quad toe loop but for the triple Lutz instead and
maybe I didn't fully switch my focus.

“The fall on the triple Axel is an unforgiveable mistake for me. It
wasn't the injury. it wasn't my back. I missed an easy element for
me. I need to do the triple Axel with my eyes closed. It's been a
long time since I missed it - probably in Budapest (at the 2004
Europeans). I didn't come here to win the gold medal but I came to
skate clean."

There was a noticeable cut on his right hand. "I cut my hand tying
my laces before skating," he explained. Maybe that was a sign from
above, that he's just human, after all.

He was the only skater in the top nine to fall. However, he earned
74.82 points and had the satisfaction of beating the young Russian
upstart, Maxim Kovtun, if only by a fraction of a point (0.36).
Maxim Kovtun lies seventh, not bad for someone making their debut.
There has been quite a controversy in Russia about sending the 17
year old, who placed only fifth in the Russian national
championship, instead of the 29-year-old bronze medalist Konstantin
Menshov.

Plushenko has Kovtun beaten in one other area. He was only 15 in his
first European championship in 1998 when he earned the silver.